An event is the user’s interaction/activity with a web page element embedded on a website and/or mobile app.
Following are examples of web page elements: video, image, button, form, scroll bar, external link, lightbox etc
Following are the examples of user activities that can be tracked as events in GA4:
Log-ins
Clicking on a button
Scrolling down the page
Downloading a file
Loading of a page in the browser window (pageview) etc.
Any user interactions with content from a web page or a screen load can be tracked as an event.
In the earlier legacy version of Google Analytics, every event needed to be configured separately, either using the global site tag (gtag.js) or Google Tag Manager (GTM).
But in the case of GA4, events are completely different and require a new setup since many of them come preconfigured now.
Yes, you heard right!! Google Analytics 4 can log many events automatically without any additional coding or tagging.
These events are also automatically triggered and logged on certain pre-defined user activities. But the events are logged only when you have enabled enhanced measurement.
To learn more about these events, check out the following two articles:
Recommended events are the events recommended by Google. They do not automatically get triggered and logged unless you manually implement them.
However, for a recommended event to work correctly, you must use the exact same event name and parameter(s) as supplied by Google.
Failing to do so, Google will not recognize your event as one of their recommended events, and your event may either not work the way you want or do not get triggered at all.
Google recommends that before you create a custom event, make sure that there is no automatic, enhanced measurement or recommended event that already provides what you need.
Note: Custom events don’t show up in most standard reports. So you would need to use custom reporting.
You can set custom events and their parameters in two ways:
Using Global Site Tag (gtag.js) – requires hard coding on the website
GA4 has certain limitations on collecting events on a per property basis. Once your event or event parameter exceeds these collection limits, they are no longer recorded by GA4.
Please keep the below limitations in mind while setting up custom events:
Item Description
Limit
Can I delete items if I’m close to the limit?
Distinctly named events
500 per app (Data stream) instance
No
Length of the event name
40 characters
N/A
Event parameters per event
25 parameters
Yes
Length of event-parameter name
40 characters
N/A
Length of event-parameter value
100 characters
N/A
Setting up event-scoped custom dimensions and metrics reporting
In the earlier legacy version, we used to pass event details as event category, event action and event label. A few additions were optional, like event value and other custom dimensions.
In the case of GA 4, you can set the event scoped custom dimensions and custom metrics while setting up the event parameter in Google Tag Manager. You can then configure the GA4 console with the same parameter name you gave while setting up the custom event, and it will be reflected in the ‘Events’ reporting tab.
Remember we passed ‘button_name’ as an extra event parameter while setting up a custom button click event in GTM. Now let’s configure this parameter (custom dimension) in GA4. Follow the below steps to configure the event scoped custom dimension.
Step 1: Click on ‘Configure’ in the GA4 reporting menu.
Step 2: Click on ‘Custom Definitions’.
Step 3: Now click on ‘Create custom dimension’.
Step 4: An overlay will appear like below. Select the scope to ‘Event’, then add the dimension name as ‘Button Name’. Now select the parameter name from the dropdown under ‘Event parameter’. This is the name you’ll see in reports, so use a descriptive name. Click on ‘Save’.
Step 5: You can debug your custom parameter in real-time as well. Just click on the button on the webpage. Navigate to the GA4 console and click on the ‘All Events’ tab. You should be able to see the parameter name and its value as well:
Modify and create events in the analytics interface
Google Analytics 4 also provides the option to modify and create events in the analytics console only. Note that you can create or modify events based on the occurrence of other events and parameters.
Modify event:
You can modify existing events. For example, if you collect two different events (Event Name: Button Click 1 and Button Click 2), you can modify these events under one name as simple ‘Button Click’. You can also fix typos in event or parameter names, and you can modify event names and parameters as well.
To start event modification, follow the below steps.
Step 1: Go to your Analytics 4 property and click on ‘Configure’.
Step 2: Click on ‘Events’.
Step 3: Click on ‘Modify event’.
Step 4: An overlay will appear like the one below. Click on ‘Create’.
Step 5: Enter the modification name (new event name).
Step 6: Click on the parameter to define your condition. It will pop up a drop-down list with available parameters that can be modified.
Step 7: Since we are doing event name modification, I will choose the event_name parameter. Now click on ‘Operator’, where you will get another drop-down menu with different conditional operators.
In our case, we will use equals. Select ‘equals’ and in the value input box, enter the first event value to modify (Button Click 1).
Step 8: Now, under ‘Modify parameters’, you will see that ‘event_name’ is already present. Type the modification name you want in the input box under ‘New Value’. In our case, we will type ‘Button Click’
Step 9: Now click on ‘Create’.
Step-10: Now repeat the same steps from starting to create modifications for the second event, which is ‘Button Click 2’.
Congratulations!! You have successfully modified your events. You can go to the ‘All Events’ tab and check. Instead of Button Click 1 and Button click 2 events, there is just one ‘Button Click’ event.
Create Event:
Just like modifying an existing event, you can also create a new event from the existing events.
For example, suppose you already have a button click event on your home page banner and another button click event on your product category page with a promotional banner. If you want to fire a third event as ‘Promotion click’ when somebody clicks the banner button on the product page, you can use the create event function in GA4 and specify when it fires based on a parameter condition.
In this example, we are already tracking the button click event on the product page. So, we can use this condition in our parameter settings to create a new event as ‘Promotion click’.
The condition will be as below:
Event: Button Click
AND
Parameter: page_title = product_page
Follow the below steps to create a new event with these conditions.
Step 1: Go to your Analytics 4 property and click ‘Configure’.
Step 2: Click on ‘Events’.
Step 3: Click on ‘Create event’.
Step 4: An overlay will appear like below. Click on ‘Create’.
Step 5: The next steps are similar to the steps we performed while modifying the events. So, we will use the following configuration settings:
Custom Event Name: Promotion_Click
Matching Condition (Click on Add Condition)
Parameter 1: event_name equals ‘Button Click’
Parameter 2: page_title equals ‘Product_page’
Step 6: Click on ‘Create’.
Congratulations!! You have successfully created a new event. You can go to the ‘All Events’ tab and check if the ‘Promotion Click’ event appears.
So, that is how you set up event tracking in Google Analytics 4.
Other articles related to GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
Frequently asked questions about GA4 event tracking
What are events in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?
An event is the user’s interaction/activity with a web page element embedded on a website and/or mobile app. Any user interactions with content from a web page or a screen load can be tracked as an event.
How are events configured in GA4 compared to GA3?
In the earlier legacy version of Google Analytics, every event needed to be configured separately, either using the global site tag (gtag.js) or Google Tag Manager (GTM). However, in the case of GA4, events are completely different and require a new setup since many of them come preconfigured. Google Analytics 4 can log many events automatically without any additional coding or tagging.
What are the categories of events in GA4?
There are four categories of events in GA4: #1 Automatically Collected Events #2 Enhanced Measurement Events #3 Recommended Events #4 Custom Events
What are the event parameters in GA4?
You can send additional information about an event in Google Analytics 4 via one or more parameters. There are three types of event parameters: #1 Automatically Collected Parameters – GA4 automatically collects these parameters #2 Custom Parameters – These are the parameters that you manually send along with an event. #3 User properties – They are like user scoped custom dimensions of Universal Analytics. They are used to describe the attributes of your website/app users.
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